Texas Gov. Rick Perry does not support a petition for the Lone Star State to secede from the union.

But a lot of people do.

The online petition asking the federal government to allow Texas to withdraw from the U.S. following President Barack Obama's reelection has nearly 100,000 signatures. It appears on a section of a White House website called We The People" and cites economic difficulties due to the federal government's inability to cut spending.

Supporters suggest that secession would protect Texans' standard of living and "re-secure their rights and liberties."

I have always been curious what Texans think of illegal immigration. Sometimes I get the impression that Texans are just fine with it as it supplies them cheap labor. Certainly books like the “The Time it never rained” leave that impression.

The Constitution is a contract (between the sovereign states and the Federal government).

The text of the Constitution indicates that it was a product of the "people" of the United States, not their state governments:

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. "

64
posted on 11/15/2012 10:36:13 AM PST
by Tau Food
(Never give a sword to a man who can't dance.)

Texas NEEDS to secede. Just think how many productive people will flock to the state just to avoid Federal taxes. True, an independent TX would have to have some taxes, but it would be a pittance compared the the rest of the US. If Texas goes blue because of US amnesty, this opportunity for liberty will have been lost forever.

You know what is interesting is that whatever Romney ends up with (47, 48, 49% whatever), that number is far more passionately opposed to obama than anything in my lifetime.

No matter how you look at it, 100,000 signatures seems to be a big number.

I think this is a noteworthy development. Not as a “cause” of something that is going to happen as a result, but more of as an “effect”....which will eventually be another “cause” of something else down the road. That something else will most assuredly not be secession anytime soon. But...it will be something. Not sure what.

Texans are Texans first, Americans second. I voted on the whitehouse website, I’d vote for secession if it comes up for a real vote, and I wouldn’t have to think twice about it. It has nothing to do with hatred for the US. It has to do with a govt that is no longer accountable to the people, and outright hostile to people that want them to obey our Constitution.

America is the world’s brightest example of what can come from the right to self-determination (the right to seceed). The power of the individual state to determine its own course is expressed rather clearly in our most famous foundational document:

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
hen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.  That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,  That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.  Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.  And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Our Founders knew the difference between "people" and "states.". Our Constitution was produced by the "people" of the United States. They bound themselves together into one nation, the USA, and they didn't provide for any procedure by which some state government could sever the bonds that the people of the United States of America have with one another.

The people of the United States did provide for a process by which their Constitution could be amended and even gave state governments a role in that process. The first legal step toward any secession requires an amendment to the Constitution to provide for the proper means by which there can be any legal "secession."

76
posted on 11/15/2012 10:56:34 AM PST
by Tau Food
(Never give a sword to a man who can't dance.)

If they want out, maybe more will follow. Look at the refineries and off shore drilling that would take place if say everything from Texas to Mississippi were to become independent. Talk about an oil rich nation not controlled by the Muzzies or Commies. Not that they would want it, but they could buy the remains of California in a couple of years.

78
posted on 11/15/2012 11:01:07 AM PST
by Steamburg
(The contents of your wallet is the only language Politicians understand.)

Many Texans around here prospered by allowing illegals to come and work. They kept a very low profile, and didn’t dare try to “milk” the system, they knew they would be deported. What has happened is the feds have unleashed the illegals on us, and they know they can get freebies now, with almost no chance of deportation.The arrangement as it was was good for Texas, and good for the Mexicans who really wanted to work. The low wages they were paid here bought lots in Mexico. Another case of the Fed Gov. screwing up the balance in Texas.Another reason we need to get out.

80
posted on 11/15/2012 11:02:49 AM PST
by Quickgun
(I came here screaming and covered in someone else's blood. I can go out that way if I have to)

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